Hello! I’m trying to come up with a setting for an upcoming game I’ll be running, but I’m having some difficulty getting the world made. Up until now I’ve been toying in Worldographer - I made a world map with continents and have been trying to map out a country to play in. But due to my extreme perfectionism, I just can’t seem to make progress. I thought maybe I could try to opposite approach, the start small and work out style - but I don’t know if I know how to do that.
Do I just make a town and flesh it out, make some notes about the surrounding areas and just kinda keep going? Doesn’t that make map making hard? Do I even need a map? Is it possible to have a good campaign without a map?
I suppose I’m looking for any sort of advice you more knowledgeable folk could impart to someone for whom the start big and work in style was hasn’t worked too well for. Are there any other approaches that you can recommend?
Edit! My apologies, apparently my wife was still logged in! If I get any responses, I’ll reply under my own account, Zarameus.
I started with a concept and worked from there. The mapping, for me, is less important than the culture.
As for world map vs local map, I would suggest having a very skeletal world map if that matters (I needed something so I knew how the cultures interact and where my PCs are from, but it does keep changing!). Starting at the local level means you can put more detail in that you're likely to use and let the story influence the map. I'm not huge on using detailed maps, though, unless combat requires it. I prefer a more cinematic approach - but I'm deliberately trying to become a 'lazy DM' so I can save time.
I would really think about what kind of campaign you want to run first. Do you plan on running a sandbox campaign or one more focused on one objective or villain. Is there going to be a ton of travelling? Does your campaign take place in "The Frozen Outlands" or will it take them all over to different biomes. Is it going to be a lot of investigating and finding clues to break apart an evil faction or will there be a lot of dungeon crawling and dragon slaying.
That's the most important thing in my opinion.
Now it kind of sounds like you have a sort of sandbox plan in mind, and honestly the difficulty you're having is to be expected. Its very hard to identify a place to start when there is no ending. While prepping for a sandbox campaign you can quickly jumping from one thing to the next because you don't fave a focus. If you are planning on running a sandbox look at your world like an onion, where the outer layers are less detailed, and the core is where your players are and require more attention.
The outer layer might be "Four kingdoms rule the land, each kept in check by the other for they all possess powerful magical weapons."
The layer below that might be the kingdom they are currently in "Tomradel is a kingdom ruled by an oligarchy that has been in power for 200 years. The capital is Maresh a massive port city with a robust economy."
Next you might have the specific region they are in and get a little more specific. "The PCs are located in on the western coast of Tomradel. The land is sparse and resources are hard to come by. Most of the wealth in the nation is to the east near the larger port cities. The area was once home to dwarven people before they abandoned their homes for reasons unknown. Because of this the area is wrecked with bandits and treasure hunters looking to make a quick buck."
Finally, exactly where your PCs are located. "The PCs are in the town of Lockstep. Hardly a town, more of a camp. The local government officials were murdered and now the town is run by a bandit lord by the name of Ishmal. Ishmal demand expensive protection money from everyone in the town despite the fact that hes really the only one they need protecting from." Then of course keep adding detail from there.
Then just create some random encounters that the PCs might run into. Setting up a world in this way makes that part easy. Just from what I have there you have some obvious quest hooks. PCs might want to run this Ishmal out of town. They might go investigate dwarven ruins on their own in search of riches. They might want to go East in search of more welcoming surroundings.
Edit: Thought I'd add this. World building is obviously an ongoing process. I just came up with all this stuff off the top of my head. I kind of like the bandit lord running a town idea and I think I will throw something like that into my campaign. This brings up the most important point, just start doing it. You can watch 100 youtube videos and read 100 forum posts about how to do it, but if you just start writing ideas will form and you can build off of them.
When I create campaign settings, most of the time I start out small, around how @pierce768 suggested.
What I often do is that I add short snippets about a place or an area that can work as an adventure hook, pique player interest or indicate a conflict. Both DM and player can use that before any more details are known as they wish. I try to avoid generic descriptions.
To exemplify I’ll continue with Tomradel. The text about the country is quite brief. That it’s an oligarchy stands out a bit so perhaps expand it with:
- It’s rumored that the ruling Den of Mothers have a debt to the House of Swallows that far exceeds what the treasury holds.
This gives oligarchy a bit of flavor, without having a clue what the den of mothers are, nor what the House of Swallows is. But a nation in debt is a reason for intrigue or conflict. You might never use it, but it’s there as a tool to use. Having a handful of such “tools” adds a lot of options later and from an outsiders perspective it looks like you planned stuff ahead, while actually you just have that short sentence.
I would add a slightly shorter text for the neighboring lands. Information that can be as much true as just vague or rumors.
- Malakrund have been ruled by the Witchqueen for hundreds of years. The inhabitants are as fierce as they are poor, each generation giving up their strongest offspring to be raised in service of their undying ruler and glory everlasting.
- Ofara is said to be a cesspit of ideas and ideals. The philosopher King of the realm seem to be without either true faith or morals, yet somehow they thrive.
- Holaxi has been torn by civil strife for several generations. But the so called war of the Lilacsseem to be at an end as the Dead Priests are supporting queen Ellandra the fourth and the other clans of the Hills have withdrawn from the Purple Citadel.
As powerful magic weapons (MWMDs? 😉) are a balance of power for the four nations, I would add some flavor to it that can be used in an epic campaign and/or add adventure hooks.
- Legend claims that all the lands from the sea to the Dawnspire mountains and from the eastern steppe to the wilds of the Mistwood, where once one kingdom. When the great darkness fell the mightiest of each people gathered and crafted four immensely powerful artifacts of war. With the aid of the artifacts the king, Lothander, slew the fiend Orogroth and drove away the hordes of Maglubiyet, but was himself mortally wounded. On his deathbed, he gave one artifact to each of his most trusted advisors and set them each to rule a part of his domain. They were entrusted to come together at a time of great peril so that the power he had wielded could once again come to the rescue of the land. Thus the four realms were born.
Lastly, if you’re going sandbox, I would at least add one or two more faction/group to Lockstep so that there are additional agendas in play. In my experience that makes any sandbox setting more interesting as there are greater options for intrigue and conflict that are not about the PCs.
- The locals of Lockstep have had it and a handful of brave townspeople are organizing the rest against the bandits. For support, they’ve turned to the shady trading house of Greywater. Jolanda Whitbrew, a representative of Greywater, and a few henchmen, are in Lockstep, negotiating the price for support. She will agree to secretly move mercenaries into town. However, her and the Greywater agenda, is to take over the town, as they are planning to open a caravan route to the west and controlling this key point will add much to their coffers.
- The murdered governor of Lockstep, Rubert Tollmaster, was under the thumb of a demon cult, located a days march to the east. Far from being a good man, Tollmaster had promised the cult that a group of refugees from the north taking shelters in town would be send to the cults keep for their twisted experiments. Instead they are now used as cheap labor by Ishmal. The bandit leader hates demon worship with a passion and slew the cults emissary, requesting the promised people. The cult now plans to enforce their will over the town.
Ah - the curse of the perfectionist! It has struck me many many times - just remember that "perfect is the enemy of good", or "a mediocre solution now is better than a perfect solution never" ;)
I think that a GM should always strive for just as much local detail as the players can detect ( see, hear about, etc. ), and as much world detail as is needed to move plot and world events along, and no more.
This has two benefits:
1) You are not putting in extra work that you don't need, or want ( although it's totally allowed for you to put in lots of details for no more reason than you are having fun writing it - just remember that's for you not the players), and ...
2) It gives you the flexibility to change details "on the fly" in reaction to the players' actions without violating world consistency ( Damn ... OK, the party is going to need to recover before they can take on the Dungeon of Unreasonably Hard Monsters without a TPK ... so ... it just moved a day further away and the sleepy village of Restovia just came to being on the road halfway there ... ).
Just remember to write everything you create on the fly down! It's canon now - and you can't change any of that without breaking consistency and thus player suspension of disbelief for your world.
In my opinion, this means that genius level creative "perfect" DM could prepare nothing, improvise everything on the fly, record it for future consistency, rinse-and-repeat indefinitely. I'm nowhere that good - I prepare a fair amount, but I try to keep it to the minimum I need for my comfort.
This means that wherever the players are should appear to be highly detailed. The next town over? Well, the locals know a,b, and c about the next village - but remember, what the locals "know" is from their perspective, and can be wrong ;) What do they know about the region/nation they're in? Broad strokes, pretty much what a 5th grader knows about their own country from class History. The world in general? Very little - although feel free to plant lots of rumors and potential plot hooks here.
And the information doesn't actually need to exist if they can't see it, or you haven't already created it for other reasons.
As time, and events, progress, take the events of a gaming session, think about it, think about what has to be going on in the background to make what the players experienced happen, think about what might be happening in the broader world due to the players' actions, think about who could have been involved in those "behind the scenes" events, invent just enough details about those "shadowy agencies" as you need/want, and write that into your world canon.
Occasionally have those "shadowy agencies" - which have their own character, goals, and motives - change the broader world by doing things to advance their goals.
It will be amazing how much depth your world develops, and how quickly, just doing that.
Maps ...
This approach does make maps harder - but maps can be a trap for the DM. We make a pretty map, and we feel like we can't change stuff because it is "on the map". It's "real" now!
And it is totally possible to run without a prepared map, at all: They're in a village? Make a dot on a blank piece of paper, put the name beside it. There's another village a day away? put down another dot and label. Connect the dots, write "1 day" above the line. The Dungeon of Unreasonably Hard Monsters is to the north? Pencil it in, connect the two villages to it, and write in the travel distances on those lines. Keep a list of "rumored places" and roughly were the party thinks they are on the map. Add them when appropriate.
If you want to make sure you're not making arrangements of dots which couldn't possibly exist on a 2-dimensional plane ( these 3 villages are all a week away from each other, and they all connect to a 4th village which is a day away from each of them?!? ), use a hex grid.
This is the cartographic equivalent of the world building technique I described above :)
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I think that a GM should always strive for just as much local detail as the players can detect ( see, hear about, etc. ), and as much world detail as is needed to move plot and world events along, and no more.
That’s a nice summary. My advice about “snippets”, or even just names, is that small tidbits of extra fluff can bridge those moments where the you and/or the players are a bit clueless about the next step.
As stated, a map doesn’t have to be more that a dot marking the village where the players are. But if you add two more dots and mark one “The Tower of Doom” and one “The Throne of the Banshee”, if nothing else comes up any group of restless players are likely to let their PCs pop over two one of those two locations to check it out. And there’s your adventure for the session.
EDIT: even the best DM can stumble and having some item of inspiration ready helps. I for one prefer to have it in the open so that it’s inspiration for the whole group.
Something that might of been overlooked so far could be the player and the character's role in the world you could just have a simple rule like if the character's name starts with a B then the player is bandit who is their nemesis and there is somewhere in the world they have to build up to a certain level to be able to over throw the bandit and take control over there own destiny. well tahts the simple version without going over the mechanics of how to set up a game like that (doesn't mean there isn't a lot of mechanics but I just don't feel like explaining them)
That’s a nice summary. My advice about “snippets”, or even just names, is that small tidbits of extra fluff can bridge those moments where the you and/or the players are a bit clueless about the next step.
As stated, a map doesn’t have to be more that a dot marking the village where the players are. But if you add two more dots and mark one “The Tower of Doom” and one “The Throne of the Banshee”, if nothing else comes up any group of restless players are likely to let their PCs pop over two one of those two locations to check it out. And there’s your adventure for the session.
EDIT: even the best DM can stumble and having some item of inspiration ready helps. I for one prefer to have it in the open so that it’s inspiration for the whole group.
Agreed. Rumors and legends to follow up on are gold.
I absolutely would let the party know that The Tower of Doom" and The Throne of the Banshee exist - and that they're "over there, beyond the Razorback Mountains" - but I might not sketch the map location in until the absolute last minute.
Who knows, maybe the Dungeon of Unreasonably Hard Monsters is in the Banshee Gap through the Razorback Mountains on the way to The Tower of Doom ... maybe the sleepy village of Restovia sits on the edge of the Onyx Desert which surrounds The Tower of Doom - or maybe the tower is in the middle of the Banshee Gap itself - I might change that around to match the narrative, pacing, needs of the party, or whether or not I wanted to inject a side-quest into the campaign.
But once the player-characters pass through the Banshee Gap and see what's actually there, or see the Tower of Doom, that information is locked. It will be exactly the same when they go back.
It's kind of like Schrödinger's cat applied to world building ;)
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
This is all phenomenal insight, I can't thank you all enough for such excellent responses. You've all given me a great deal to kind of mull over and consider. I never would have even considered the possibility of a Schrodinger's cat situation.
As with all things in creation, the best advice I have been given and keep on giving is: "Steal shamelessly." You want a Tower Doom? Steal White-Gold Tower from Oblivion. Banshee Gap try re-skinning Megaton from Fallout 3 and placing it as the only entrance into the tower. Then you can merge the lore of the two locales together. Once a seat of power in the region this civilization was laid low when a meteor fell into the main gate. It's strange energies warping and corrupting the inhabitants leading the fall this civilization. Abnormal screams can be heard echoing from the crater leading to the belief that banshees and other undead still haunt the tower. Maybe this true or maybe the screams are actually the psychic emanations of the star spawn who destroyed the original inhabitants. Now you have single detailed dungeon. So it's time the answer the big question: "So what?"
What does any of this have to do with anything? Who built this tower? Why was it a seat of power and what over? A Duchy? A Kingdom? An Empire? How did this shape the surrounding areas? What happened after the cataclysm and what remains of what once was? The answers are your world in this example.
My own world is a trove of treasures I've stolen from lesser known novels and games I'm sure my players haven't read or played. Each gem plucked from its home, cut, polished, and set into place by yours truly. I even name some of my cities after gems such as the free city of Opal cause it amuses me.
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Hello! I’m trying to come up with a setting for an upcoming game I’ll be running, but I’m having some difficulty getting the world made. Up until now I’ve been toying in Worldographer - I made a world map with continents and have been trying to map out a country to play in. But due to my extreme perfectionism, I just can’t seem to make progress. I thought maybe I could try to opposite approach, the start small and work out style - but I don’t know if I know how to do that.
Do I just make a town and flesh it out, make some notes about the surrounding areas and just kinda keep going? Doesn’t that make map making hard? Do I even need a map? Is it possible to have a good campaign without a map?
I suppose I’m looking for any sort of advice you more knowledgeable folk could impart to someone for whom the start big and work in style was hasn’t worked too well for. Are there any other approaches that you can recommend?
Edit! My apologies, apparently my wife was still logged in! If I get any responses, I’ll reply under my own account, Zarameus.
I started with a concept and worked from there. The mapping, for me, is less important than the culture.
As for world map vs local map, I would suggest having a very skeletal world map if that matters (I needed something so I knew how the cultures interact and where my PCs are from, but it does keep changing!). Starting at the local level means you can put more detail in that you're likely to use and let the story influence the map. I'm not huge on using detailed maps, though, unless combat requires it. I prefer a more cinematic approach - but I'm deliberately trying to become a 'lazy DM' so I can save time.
I would really think about what kind of campaign you want to run first. Do you plan on running a sandbox campaign or one more focused on one objective or villain. Is there going to be a ton of travelling? Does your campaign take place in "The Frozen Outlands" or will it take them all over to different biomes. Is it going to be a lot of investigating and finding clues to break apart an evil faction or will there be a lot of dungeon crawling and dragon slaying.
That's the most important thing in my opinion.
Now it kind of sounds like you have a sort of sandbox plan in mind, and honestly the difficulty you're having is to be expected. Its very hard to identify a place to start when there is no ending. While prepping for a sandbox campaign you can quickly jumping from one thing to the next because you don't fave a focus. If you are planning on running a sandbox look at your world like an onion, where the outer layers are less detailed, and the core is where your players are and require more attention.
The outer layer might be "Four kingdoms rule the land, each kept in check by the other for they all possess powerful magical weapons."
The layer below that might be the kingdom they are currently in "Tomradel is a kingdom ruled by an oligarchy that has been in power for 200 years. The capital is Maresh a massive port city with a robust economy."
Next you might have the specific region they are in and get a little more specific. "The PCs are located in on the western coast of Tomradel. The land is sparse and resources are hard to come by. Most of the wealth in the nation is to the east near the larger port cities. The area was once home to dwarven people before they abandoned their homes for reasons unknown. Because of this the area is wrecked with bandits and treasure hunters looking to make a quick buck."
Finally, exactly where your PCs are located. "The PCs are in the town of Lockstep. Hardly a town, more of a camp. The local government officials were murdered and now the town is run by a bandit lord by the name of Ishmal. Ishmal demand expensive protection money from everyone in the town despite the fact that hes really the only one they need protecting from." Then of course keep adding detail from there.
Then just create some random encounters that the PCs might run into. Setting up a world in this way makes that part easy. Just from what I have there you have some obvious quest hooks. PCs might want to run this Ishmal out of town. They might go investigate dwarven ruins on their own in search of riches. They might want to go East in search of more welcoming surroundings.
Edit: Thought I'd add this. World building is obviously an ongoing process. I just came up with all this stuff off the top of my head. I kind of like the bandit lord running a town idea and I think I will throw something like that into my campaign. This brings up the most important point, just start doing it. You can watch 100 youtube videos and read 100 forum posts about how to do it, but if you just start writing ideas will form and you can build off of them.
When I create campaign settings, most of the time I start out small, around how @pierce768 suggested.
What I often do is that I add short snippets about a place or an area that can work as an adventure hook, pique player interest or indicate a conflict. Both DM and player can use that before any more details are known as they wish. I try to avoid generic descriptions.
To exemplify I’ll continue with Tomradel. The text about the country is quite brief. That it’s an oligarchy stands out a bit so perhaps expand it with:
- It’s rumored that the ruling Den of Mothers have a debt to the House of Swallows that far exceeds what the treasury holds.
This gives oligarchy a bit of flavor, without having a clue what the den of mothers are, nor what the House of Swallows is. But a nation in debt is a reason for intrigue or conflict. You might never use it, but it’s there as a tool to use. Having a handful of such “tools” adds a lot of options later and from an outsiders perspective it looks like you planned stuff ahead, while actually you just have that short sentence.
I would add a slightly shorter text for the neighboring lands. Information that can be as much true as just vague or rumors.
- Malakrund have been ruled by the Witchqueen for hundreds of years. The inhabitants are as fierce as they are poor, each generation giving up their strongest offspring to be raised in service of their undying ruler and glory everlasting.
- Ofara is said to be a cesspit of ideas and ideals. The philosopher King of the realm seem to be without either true faith or morals, yet somehow they thrive.
- Holaxi has been torn by civil strife for several generations. But the so called war of the Lilacs seem to be at an end as the Dead Priests are supporting queen Ellandra the fourth and the other clans of the Hills have withdrawn from the Purple Citadel.
As powerful magic weapons (MWMDs? 😉) are a balance of power for the four nations, I would add some flavor to it that can be used in an epic campaign and/or add adventure hooks.
- Legend claims that all the lands from the sea to the Dawnspire mountains and from the eastern steppe to the wilds of the Mistwood, where once one kingdom. When the great darkness fell the mightiest of each people gathered and crafted four immensely powerful artifacts of war. With the aid of the artifacts the king, Lothander, slew the fiend Orogroth and drove away the hordes of Maglubiyet, but was himself mortally wounded. On his deathbed, he gave one artifact to each of his most trusted advisors and set them each to rule a part of his domain. They were entrusted to come together at a time of great peril so that the power he had wielded could once again come to the rescue of the land. Thus the four realms were born.
Lastly, if you’re going sandbox, I would at least add one or two more faction/group to Lockstep so that there are additional agendas in play. In my experience that makes any sandbox setting more interesting as there are greater options for intrigue and conflict that are not about the PCs.
- The locals of Lockstep have had it and a handful of brave townspeople are organizing the rest against the bandits. For support, they’ve turned to the shady trading house of Greywater. Jolanda Whitbrew, a representative of Greywater, and a few henchmen, are in Lockstep, negotiating the price for support. She will agree to secretly move mercenaries into town. However, her and the Greywater agenda, is to take over the town, as they are planning to open a caravan route to the west and controlling this key point will add much to their coffers.
- The murdered governor of Lockstep, Rubert Tollmaster, was under the thumb of a demon cult, located a days march to the east. Far from being a good man, Tollmaster had promised the cult that a group of refugees from the north taking shelters in town would be send to the cults keep for their twisted experiments. Instead they are now used as cheap labor by Ishmal. The bandit leader hates demon worship with a passion and slew the cults emissary, requesting the promised people. The cult now plans to enforce their will over the town.
Ah - the curse of the perfectionist! It has struck me many many times - just remember that "perfect is the enemy of good", or "a mediocre solution now is better than a perfect solution never" ;)
I think that a GM should always strive for just as much local detail as the players can detect ( see, hear about, etc. ), and as much world detail as is needed to move plot and world events along, and no more.
This has two benefits:
1) You are not putting in extra work that you don't need, or want ( although it's totally allowed for you to put in lots of details for no more reason than you are having fun writing it - just remember that's for you not the players), and ...
2) It gives you the flexibility to change details "on the fly" in reaction to the players' actions without violating world consistency ( Damn ... OK, the party is going to need to recover before they can take on the Dungeon of Unreasonably Hard Monsters without a TPK ... so ... it just moved a day further away and the sleepy village of Restovia just came to being on the road halfway there ... ).
Just remember to write everything you create on the fly down! It's canon now - and you can't change any of that without breaking consistency and thus player suspension of disbelief for your world.
In my opinion, this means that genius level creative "perfect" DM could prepare nothing, improvise everything on the fly, record it for future consistency, rinse-and-repeat indefinitely. I'm nowhere that good - I prepare a fair amount, but I try to keep it to the minimum I need for my comfort.
This means that wherever the players are should appear to be highly detailed. The next town over? Well, the locals know a,b, and c about the next village - but remember, what the locals "know" is from their perspective, and can be wrong ;) What do they know about the region/nation they're in? Broad strokes, pretty much what a 5th grader knows about their own country from class History. The world in general? Very little - although feel free to plant lots of rumors and potential plot hooks here.
And the information doesn't actually need to exist if they can't see it, or you haven't already created it for other reasons.
As time, and events, progress, take the events of a gaming session, think about it, think about what has to be going on in the background to make what the players experienced happen, think about what might be happening in the broader world due to the players' actions, think about who could have been involved in those "behind the scenes" events, invent just enough details about those "shadowy agencies" as you need/want, and write that into your world canon.
Occasionally have those "shadowy agencies" - which have their own character, goals, and motives - change the broader world by doing things to advance their goals.
It will be amazing how much depth your world develops, and how quickly, just doing that.
Maps ...
This approach does make maps harder - but maps can be a trap for the DM. We make a pretty map, and we feel like we can't change stuff because it is "on the map". It's "real" now!
And it is totally possible to run without a prepared map, at all: They're in a village? Make a dot on a blank piece of paper, put the name beside it. There's another village a day away? put down another dot and label. Connect the dots, write "1 day" above the line. The Dungeon of Unreasonably Hard Monsters is to the north? Pencil it in, connect the two villages to it, and write in the travel distances on those lines. Keep a list of "rumored places" and roughly were the party thinks they are on the map. Add them when appropriate.
If you want to make sure you're not making arrangements of dots which couldn't possibly exist on a 2-dimensional plane ( these 3 villages are all a week away from each other, and they all connect to a 4th village which is a day away from each of them?!? ), use a hex grid.
This is the cartographic equivalent of the world building technique I described above :)
Be a lazy, but consistent, world builder ;)
Good luck!
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
That’s a nice summary. My advice about “snippets”, or even just names, is that small tidbits of extra fluff can bridge those moments where the you and/or the players are a bit clueless about the next step.
As stated, a map doesn’t have to be more that a dot marking the village where the players are. But if you add two more dots and mark one “The Tower of Doom” and one “The Throne of the Banshee”, if nothing else comes up any group of restless players are likely to let their PCs pop over two one of those two locations to check it out. And there’s your adventure for the session.
EDIT: even the best DM can stumble and having some item of inspiration ready helps. I for one prefer to have it in the open so that it’s inspiration for the whole group.
Something that might of been overlooked so far could be the player and the character's role in the world you could just have a simple rule like if the character's name starts with a B then the player is bandit who is their nemesis and there is somewhere in the world they have to build up to a certain level to be able to over throw the bandit and take control over there own destiny. well tahts the simple version without going over the mechanics of how to set up a game like that (doesn't mean there isn't a lot of mechanics but I just don't feel like explaining them)
Agreed. Rumors and legends to follow up on are gold.
I absolutely would let the party know that The Tower of Doom" and The Throne of the Banshee exist - and that they're "over there, beyond the Razorback Mountains" - but I might not sketch the map location in until the absolute last minute.
Who knows, maybe the Dungeon of Unreasonably Hard Monsters is in the Banshee Gap through the Razorback Mountains on the way to The Tower of Doom ... maybe the sleepy village of Restovia sits on the edge of the Onyx Desert which surrounds The Tower of Doom - or maybe the tower is in the middle of the Banshee Gap itself - I might change that around to match the narrative, pacing, needs of the party, or whether or not I wanted to inject a side-quest into the campaign.
But once the player-characters pass through the Banshee Gap and see what's actually there, or see the Tower of Doom, that information is locked. It will be exactly the same when they go back.
It's kind of like Schrödinger's cat applied to world building ;)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
This is all phenomenal insight, I can't thank you all enough for such excellent responses. You've all given me a great deal to kind of mull over and consider. I never would have even considered the possibility of a Schrodinger's cat situation.
I greatly appreciate all the feedback!
As with all things in creation, the best advice I have been given and keep on giving is: "Steal shamelessly." You want a Tower Doom? Steal White-Gold Tower from Oblivion. Banshee Gap try re-skinning Megaton from Fallout 3 and placing it as the only entrance into the tower. Then you can merge the lore of the two locales together. Once a seat of power in the region this civilization was laid low when a meteor fell into the main gate. It's strange energies warping and corrupting the inhabitants leading the fall this civilization. Abnormal screams can be heard echoing from the crater leading to the belief that banshees and other undead still haunt the tower. Maybe this true or maybe the screams are actually the psychic emanations of the star spawn who destroyed the original inhabitants. Now you have single detailed dungeon. So it's time the answer the big question: "So what?"
What does any of this have to do with anything? Who built this tower? Why was it a seat of power and what over? A Duchy? A Kingdom? An Empire? How did this shape the surrounding areas? What happened after the cataclysm and what remains of what once was? The answers are your world in this example.
My own world is a trove of treasures I've stolen from lesser known novels and games I'm sure my players haven't read or played. Each gem plucked from its home, cut, polished, and set into place by yours truly. I even name some of my cities after gems such as the free city of Opal cause it amuses me.